The fame of the bridge was actually started by a French book called The Bridge on the River Kwai written by Pierre Boulle. (Department of Veterans’ Affairs) A movie was later released based on the book. The movie was “British POW commander Captain Nicholson (Alec Guinness) who takes such pride in British technical expertise that he cooperates with the Japanese commander Saito in building a towering wooden bridge. When an Allied commando mission (led by William Holden) tries to sabotage the bridge Nicholson almost foils them. The bridge is finally destroyed as Nicolson, wounded in the shoot-out between the Japanese and the commandos, falls onto the detonator bringing the bridge, and the train crossing it, crashing into the river.” (Department …show more content…
The fight lasted for about three months until the president Camille Chamoun, who was president of Lebanon intervened. American and Lebanese finally secured the port and international airport and calmed the crisis. Since it was over the United States withdrew. (Wikipedia, 2018) In July 1958, Lebanon was threatened a civil war between Maronite Christians and Muslims. “while the Christians wanted to keep Lebanon aligned with Western powers. A Muslim rebellion that was allegedly supplied with arms by the UAR through Syria caused President Chamoun to complain to the United Nations Security Council.” (Wikipedia, 2018) Lebanese Muslims rioted over fear of the delicate balance between Christianity and Islam. In one story that an officer told who lived through it named Walter Silva said that a group of American missionaries wanted to leave the country, and could not, according to him they said they were in danger of their lives and needed to get out. (Adst) To add onto the tensions, Iraqi officers assassinated their king and prime minister. Since there was so much tension and rioting and fights, they had to call on America for help. (Global